"I say I'm not optimistic only because it's a couple weeks," D'Antoni said Wednesday at the team's shootaround. "If it's bad enough to get it checked, we'll see what it is once we get it checked, but it'll be tough."

The Lakers have 11 games left in the regular season, and given that they lead the Utah Jazz by only one game for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, it's not clear whether they'll play beyond the regular season.

An MRI exam Tuesday in Minneapolis revealed the injury, and the Lakers expected to find more answers later once Lakers team doctor Steve Lombardo reexamines World Peace in Los Angeles.

But World Peace's injury sounds serious, according to the Daily News.

"Sorry bout the injury," World Peace tweeted late Tuesday. "First ever knee injury. Recovery time hopefully is a week and a half."

However, he deleted the tweet later.

"It's been a trying year for a lot of years and not just because of injuries," D'Antoni said, according to the Daily News. "That's what everybody has to go through. We can't seem to get any traction. Besides that, nobody is feeling sorry for us. We have plenty to win anyway so let's do what we're supposed to do, play as hard as we can and see what happens. If we do that, we should be fine."

World Peace is the fifth and final Lakers starter to experience a significant injury this season: Dwight Howard (torn labrum in right shoulder), Steve Nash (fractured left leg), Pau Gasol (torn plantar fascia in right foot) and Kobe Bryant (sprained left ankle). Also, reserves Steve Blake (lower abdominal strain) and Jordan Hill (season-ending left hip injury) also experienced significant injuries.

"It seems like all year when somebody comes out, somebody goes down," Howard said. "It's tough. Then to see Metta go down, it hurts."

The Lakers enter tonight's game having lost three straight, though they've defeated the Timberwolves 21 consecutive times.

"It'll be tough to offset it," Howard said of World Peace's absence. "But everybody else has to pick up the slack. That's the only way we can do it. We just all have to be on a string on defense, communicate, trust each other and have each other pick. We just all have to be together and do it together."